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This is a rare Daum Nancy art glass vase. There is a very faint signature on the bottom, inside the polished pontil, the one that is Daum Nancy on the slant with a tiny Cross of Lorraine between the two words. I can see the signature if I flash a strong light on it and hold it just right, however the camera does not see it. I put tape on the bottom where the signature is for whomever buys the vase. The signature is the one that is dated 1895 to 1900.

However, if you are a Daum collector or an antique dealer, you know that Daum made a variety of glass vases with the Cross of Lorraine as part of the decoration, from around 1890 to 1900. You also know that Daum introduced and experimented with some different colors around 1893, and this is one of those colors, unique to this specific time frame.

By cameo, I mean that there is a top layer of glass that forms the patterns. The base glass is frosted to give the appearance that the French glassmakers used at this time of water, or rippled ice. There are three different places where there is a Cross of Lorraine: 1)about half way up the left side, 2)the top of the right side and 3)at the foot slightly to the rear on the right side. The main decoration is thistles on long stems with leaves. Maybe you don’t know this, but the thistle is the official flower of Lorraine, and it is why it is a dominant decoration in the art glass of this region. Getting the Cross of Lorraine with the flower of Lorraine is special. There is a lot of applied gold to the decorations.

The thistle decoration is not the rarity. Here, the rarity is that there are multiple crosses in raised glass, and the color of this glass is scarce and hard to find in Daum Nancy glass.

The vase is 12” high, 4 ½” long and 2” wide. The mouth is oval, whereas the foot is round.

The color is a purple amethyst, and the color does change with the lighting conditions. The purple has a different cast to it. I can’t quite identify it, but like the purple is mixed with someone else to give it a different shading, so more of a plum color.

The mouth rim is rounded and trimmed in gold. There is more gold trim around the edge of the foot.

The edge of the foot is clear glass.

There is a burst air bubble inside the vase, towards the top, on the front, and I show the burst air bubble in a close-up photo; there is a vertical color fold line in the glass that goes through the bubble that you can see in the same photo; this was all done at the time of the glassmaking process and it is not considered a flaw. There are a few more air bubbles.

The decoration looks real good, considering the age of the glass. I don’t see any nicks in the raised cameo decoration, and any wear to the gold is minimal. There are no nicks, chips or cracks. The pontil is round, indented and polished smooth. The bottom shows a lot of age scratches.

If you have read this far, I will add a few more comments. I had already decided the date of the vase is circa 1895 based on many factors, such as the crosses, the type of glass, the color of the glass, etc. Then I saw the very faint signature, which confirms the date as being 1895 to 1900.

Keep in mind that at 12” this vase is taller than most Daum vases, and it is also 19th century.